Wayward
by My Vantilene
Summary: For the first time in her life, Terezi feels blind.


Where the breakline is where what happened in the flash takes place.

* * *

"Have you seen my ancestor?" Terezi asks, uncharacteristically quiet.

"Latula? Yeah. That is one fine ancestor, let me tell you. My human equivalent is a bit of a disappointment compared to yours." Dave replies, dispelling more bubbles in different directions.

"Is that so?" she inquires slowly, draping the bright red dragon cosplay around her shoulders.

"Yeah. If only office shredders shredded like she does. Did you see her skateboard? Better than the piece-of-shit one Bro got me for my tenth birthday."

"Mhmm."

"And she's hot, okay. Now I see where you get your ass from. I guess in a couple years — excuse my human speak — a couple sweeps, that's what you'll look like. But, um, not to sound insensitive here, but is this really all that important? I have e_bubbles to dish out upon the afterlife."

"No," she says, almost above a whisper, "no, I guess it's not."

She shoves the hood over her face, pulling it as low as it will go. Everything is bright candy red, but she can't even enjoy it. As she stumbles around in her own discouraged stupor, something inside of her shifts.

For the first time in her life, Terezi actually feels blind.

Maybe Latula could've done things differently. Maybe she would've taken precautionary measures way back in the beginning so it wouldn't have come to either killing her best friend, or witnessing an unstoppable demon kill her matesprit and herself.

Latula never deserved to die, but Terezi has given the universe every excuse in the book to kill her.

This is what Dave would refer to as "ironic."

Speaking of Dave, even her current matesprit likes Latula better. She's so fun and rad and… she's everything Terezi has failed to be.

With the hood obscuring her nose, she can't really tell where she's going, but she can hear the deep breaths of her lusus, so she must be in a memory of her hive.

There's a rustle of footfalls.

* * *

"Wait, Karkat!" Terezi calls after she's finally caught up with the cancerous troll.

"T-Terezi?" he sputters, obviously caught off guard.

"You really don't understand." She says, at a loss for intelligent words.

"Is this about your ancestor?"

"Have you even seen her?"

"Terezi, she's nothing compared to you, okay? Honestly, I think you're a lot prettier than she is even though you're supposed to be genetically identical. She must've screwed up somewhere."

"But Karkat, that's —"

"You know she's a knight? A knight of mind. Knights are as fake as they come, I should know. The role itself is for the insecure. But seers? Seers are actually something, Terezi. You see what we can't."

"I can't, though. I can't see. I'm blind."

"Yes, and that's what makes you so special. You're blind, and yet you can see what her and I can't."

"Careful," she warns, wiping an aqua tear from her eyes, "Kankri might hear you."

"Check your privilege." He imitates sardonically, folding his arms across his chest.

"Triggered." She laughs.

Karkat stops and stares at her, a slow, rare smile cropping up.

"What?"

"Your smile is so warm compared to hers." He says dreamily, but remembers himself and straightens up and stops smiling and turns away from her.

"Sorry." He chokes out.

"Don't be." She slides her gangly arms around him in a backwards hug and something clicks.

Terezi broke up with Karkat because of his weighted insecurities and childish jealousy. He was getting to be clingy and petty, looking for any excuse to mistrust her because he never truly believed that she loved him. She got tired of it all too quickly.

But now she understood why he acted the way he acted.

This was the first time Terezi had felt any insecurity of this sort, but Karkat had probably felt this way since day one. Then he had met someone he truly admired and loved more than anything, and he didn't understand why she stayed with him when she could be with anyone. He suspected a catch, or for his luck to run out.

And it did.

She wasn't willing to help him, so she left.

And now she regrets it.

Karkat's always been there for her, and he's here for her now, even after she turned her back on him.

She supposes he deals with this better than she would because it's something he was anticipating ever since they got together.

She lets go of him and he turns around to give her a proper hug.

They sink into each other's arms and they're both crying at this point.

"I'm always here." He whispers.


End file.
